| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Tech |
| Superbug kills 12 at spinal unit as doctors warn of new threat to NHS |
| 2005-06-06 |
| An outbreak of a lethal new bug at a leading specialist hospital has claimed 12 lives and is posing a grave new threat to the NHS, doctors have warned. More than 300 patients have been infected with the bug, a virulent new strain of Clostridium difficile, at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Oxfordshire, known for its world-famous spinal injuries unit supported by the former disc jockey Sir Jimmy Savile. But all attempts to control the infection, which causes severe diarrhoea that can be life-threatening, have failed. The disclosure raises new concerns about NHS hygiene following a series of scares over the superbug MRSA and the pressure on hospitals to hit waiting list targets. Cases of C. difficile have soared from fewer than 1,000 in 1990 to 43,672 in 2004 but it has not received the same attention as MRSA. Latest figures show there were 934 deaths in 2003, a 38 per cent rise in two years. A similar number of people died from MRSA in the same year, with 955 people dying from the infection, a 30 per cent increase in two years. The bug poses a particular threat to hospitals because it produces hardy spores that are resistant to normal methods of cleaning and can persist on hands, clothes, bedding and furniture, transmitting the infection to new patients. Alcohol gels used by medical staff to clean their hands between patients, in an attempt to combat MRSA, are ineffective against the spores of C. difficile. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said washing in soap and water was necessary to eliminate the bug and powerful disinfectants were needed instead of ordinary detergents to clean the wards. Fears about the growing threat posed by the bug led the Department of Health to introduce mandatory reporting of infections caused by the bacterium last year. The cost of treating each case was estimated at £4,000 in 1996, implying a cost to the NHS today of more than £200m. A report by the National C. difficile Standards Group set up by the health department in 2003 said the rise in cases was "dramatic" and it had happened "at a time when there is a general perception that standards of hospital cleaning have been declining". Andrew Berrington, consultant microbiologist at Sunderland City hospital and a member of the standards group said: "It is a serious problem and in some ways more serious than MRSA. A new strain would be an important and concerning thing..." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |